Cory Morse | MLive.com Rapids PressProtesters take part in a labor group rally opposed to Governor Rick Snyder's policies at the State Capitol Building in Lansing in March

LANSING – The Michigan Education Association, long among the most powerful forces in Lansing, has endured a devastating run since Republicans assumed control of the Capitol in 2011.

Leaders of Michigan's largest teachers' union at 155,000 members, historically linked to Democrats, say they’ve been targeted by Republicans who have passed a flurry of bills intended to chip away at the union's clout. Bills recently have included tenure reform and empowering emergency managers to break union contracts.

“The Republicans have gone after us like they’ve gone after kids and senior citizens,” said Doug Pratt, the MEA’s public affairs director. “We’re a target because of stances we’ve taken. The party has been eaten by its extremist wing that doesn’t value public education and the middle class as much as it does corporate special interests.”

Political observers say the union's predicament is predictable. When a union goes "all in" with one party, there's going to be suffering when that party is all out of power.

“The pendulum swings, and for the last 40 years it swung the way of the unions,” said veteran Lansing pundit Bill Ballenger, editor of the “Inside Michigan Politics” newsletter. “Over the last 15 months, it’s swung back the other way.”

GOP leaders say their flurry of union-focused bills have more to do with good policy than revenge, though they do say teachers have chosen a "destructive" relationship with lawmakers while other unions have been more collaborative.

“The Democrats are a branch of the union, not the other way around,” said state Rep. Joseph Haveman, R-Holland, who sponsored a bill prohibiting union dues from being collected via payroll deduction.

Haveman’s bill, signed in to law this month, was touted as a move toward transparency and efficiency. But insiders said the goal is to hamper the union’s ability to raise money to challenge GOP candidates and causes.

It’s the latest in a string of defeats: the once unimaginable deconstruction of tenure; limiting topics that can be negotiated; linking teacher evaluations to student performance; prohibiting university research assistants from joining unions; and pushing employee contributions to health insurance.

And threatened -- but not yet pushed -- is what Ballenger called “the big enchilada,” right-to-work legislation.

State Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids

Ballenger said the MEA amassed power over the past 40 years, and was challenged only slightly by former Gov. John Engler, who worked with a strong Republican majority in the state Senate but a razor-thin margin in the state House, where some members in closely contested districts were afraid to rattle the union’s cage.

“Now we’re seeing very strong majorities in both houses and the Republicans are going to push their agenda,” he said. “Gov. Snyder is a more polite, well-mannered and civil-sounding guy and not as confrontational as governors in Wisconsin and Ohio. But he’s signed everything they’ve put in front of him.”

State Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, is disappointed in Snyder, who he believed has caved to a Republican base trying “to drive a stake through the heart of organized labor.”

“It’s frustrating to see bills passed as payback or punishment without any public policy purpose,” he said. “The teachers have been targeted specifically in a lot of these bills. If the governor had any guts, he’d veto some of these bills. He said he didn’t want a labor war, but he’s signing these bills. For all the things I disagree with former Gov. John Engler about, if he didn’t want to sign a bill he made sure it never got to his desk. This governor seems to want things both ways.”

Union efforts to go on offense have backfired.

MEA President Iris Salters retired after heavy criticism for comparing the emergency financial law to slavery and warning members to prepare for the possibility of a statewide strike.

And high-profile attempts to recall Snyder and other Republicans were largely unsuccessful.

One representative, Rep. Paul Scott, R-Grand Blanc, was ousted in union-friendly Flint suburbs. But Scott was temporarily replaced as head of the House Education Committee by vocal MEA critic Thomas McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. McMillin guided the committee through union-opposed bills lifting the cap charter schools. And Scott’s vacant seat in the House was recently filled by another Republican during a February election.

Pratt said “not a single” recall campaign was started by the union, but said they were grassroots efforts that included MEA members “and other angry people who feel misled by Republicans, and we were happy to support them.”

Ballenger said that claim “is a bunch of hooey. There were fingerprints of the unions and Democrats all over those petition drives.”

State House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said the recalls came after “long sought and deeply needed tenure reform,” and were part of a “destructive” path chosen by the teachers' union leaders, who he believes are increasingly out of step with members.

Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall

“The interesting point was that during the recall we heard from teachers who were not happy about the partisan political attacks their union was pursuing,” Bolger said. “They expressed frustration that they did not feel their union was accountable to them, and not seeking results for educators and our kids’ education.”

Bolger said other unions, especially police and fire groups, worked more closely with Republican lawmakers on difficult issues like changes to binding arbitration.

Pratt said the unions have tried to be cooperative, saying representatives have not been allowed to meet with Bolger. But Ballenger suggests recent changes in MEA leadership might be helpful.

MEA President Steven Cook

New union President Steven Cook “is a bit more mild-mannered, and not the same flame-thrower” as Salters, Ballenger said.

The union soon will have a new executive director as well, with Lu Battaglieri stepping aside early next month. An interim has been named, but a replacement won’t be sought until after the November elections – for which the union is expected to mount one more push.

That effort, “Protect Our Jobs” petition drive, is intended to add a constitutional amendment protecting collective bargaining and repealing many of the GOP reforms.

It will likely draw national attention and out-of-state resources, Ballenger said.

The goal is for the unions to do at the ballot box what they've been unable to do through the Legislature. Ballenger said the move has been painted as covering bargaining rights, but it goes far beyond that issue.

He said the union will appeal to the state's strong tradition of organized labor. But business leaders and Republicans already are accusing the union of over-reaching. Bolger said the union "wants the keys to the taxpayers’ tills.”

Ballenger said the key will be who can best define the issue leading up to a November presidential election when turnout will be highest.

“We are looking at what will undoubtedly be a protracted, seven-month battle,” he said.